diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cb2a0717e..e0c715a3f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ HermitCore is the result of a research project at RWTH Aachen University and is
 * Netwide Assembler (NASM)
 * GNU Make, GNU Binutils
 * Tools and libraries to build *linux*, *binutils* and *gcc* (e.g. flex, bison, MPFR library, GMP library, MPC library, ISL library)
-* libelf
 * texinfo
 * Qemu
 
diff --git a/hermit/tools/proxy.c b/hermit/tools/proxy.c
index 6d8d6aba5..0a859d456 100644
--- a/hermit/tools/proxy.c
+++ b/hermit/tools/proxy.c
@@ -33,10 +33,8 @@
 #include <signal.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <errno.h>
-#include <gelf.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/socket.h>
-#include <sys/sendfile.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 #include <arpa/inet.h>
 #include <linux/tcp.h>
@@ -58,7 +56,6 @@
 
 static int sobufsize = 131072;
 static unsigned int isle_nr = 0;
-static char fname[] = "/tmp/hermitXXXXXX";
 
 extern char **environ;
 
@@ -69,7 +66,6 @@ static void fini_env(void)
 {
 	dump_log();
 	stop_hermit();
-	unlink(fname);
 }
 
 static void exit_handler(int sig)
@@ -77,100 +73,6 @@ static void exit_handler(int sig)
 	exit(0);
 }
 
-static int load_elf(int dest_fd, int elf_fd)
-{
-	Elf *elf;
-	GElf_Ehdr ehdr;
-	GElf_Phdr phdr ;
-
-	size_t n;
-	int ret;
-	int i;
-
-	if (elf_version(EV_CURRENT) == EV_NONE)
-		return -1;
-
-	elf = elf_begin(elf_fd, ELF_C_READ, NULL);
-	if (!elf)
-		return -1;
-
-	if (elf_kind(elf) != ELF_K_ELF)
-		goto out;
-
-	if (gelf_getehdr(elf, &ehdr) != &ehdr)
-		goto out;
-
-	if (ehdr.e_ident[EI_OSABI] != HERMIT_ELFOSABI)
-		goto out;
-
-	if (elf_getphdrnum(elf , &n) != 0)
-		goto out;
-
-	for (i = 0; i < n ; i ++) {
-		ssize_t ret;
-		off_t offset;
-
-		if (gelf_getphdr(elf, i, &phdr) != & phdr )
-			continue;
-
-		if (phdr.p_type != PT_LOAD)
-			continue;
-		offset = phdr.p_offset;
-		ret = sendfile(dest_fd, elf_fd, &offset, phdr.p_filesz);
-		if (ret != phdr.p_filesz || offset != phdr.p_offset + phdr.p_filesz)
-			goto out;
-	}
-
-	ret = 0;
-
-out:	elf_end(elf);
-
-	return ret;
-}
-
-static int load_bin(const char *app)
-{
-	int tmp_fd, elf_fd, ret;
-	FILE *file;
-
-	mkstemp(fname);
-
-	// register function to delete temporary files
-	atexit(fini_env);
-
-	tmp_fd = open(fname, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
-	if (tmp_fd < 0) {
-		perror("open");
-		exit(1);
-	}
-
-	// get text section from elf binary
-	elf_fd = open(app, O_RDONLY, 0);
-	if (elf_fd < 0) {
-		perror("open");
-		exit(1);
-	}
-
-	ret = load_elf(tmp_fd, elf_fd);
-	if (ret)
-		goto out;
-
-	// set path to temporary file
-	file = fopen("/sys/hermit/path", "w");
-	if (!file) {
-		perror("fopen");
-		exit(1);
-	}
-
-	fprintf(file, "%s", fname);
-	fclose(file);
-
-out:	close(tmp_fd);
-	close(elf_fd);
-
-	return ret;
-}
-
 static int init_env(const char *path)
 {
 	int ret;
@@ -206,13 +108,16 @@ static int init_env(const char *path)
 			isle_nr = 0;
 	}
 
-	// load application
-	ret = load_bin(path);
-	if (ret) {
-		perror("Failed to load binary");
+	// set path to temporary file
+	file = fopen("/sys/hermit/path", "w");
+	if (!file) {
+		perror("fopen");
 		exit(1);
 	}
 
+	fprintf(file, "%s", path);
+	fclose(file);
+
 	// start application
 	snprintf(isle_path, MAX_PATH, "/sys/hermit/isle%d/cpus", isle_nr);
 	file = fopen(isle_path, "w");
@@ -505,6 +410,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	struct sockaddr_in serv_name;
 
 	init_env(argv[1]);
+	atexit(fini_env);
 
 	/* create a socket */
 	s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);